Littleton, NH

[cinnepa]

thanks again all....looks like keene would have great access to VT as well, which is where we like to hang out too....without the high costs of living there. couple hours to a beach is fine by us.

[buttahflake]

I’m in Walpole, northwest of Keene by 15 miles. Right on the river. Exit 5 on 91. 40 minutes to Okemo, 40 minutes to Magic, 65 minutes to Killington. It’s a sweet-ass town to live in.

[Todd Zander]

i hear chesterfields school system is very good

[prsboogie]

I would throw in for Lebanon as well. Minutes from the Vt line and still close to the western White Mtns. Pretty much where I wanted to land if I could have cut my wife's umbilical cord to her family. Just because I do work, Dartmouth is right there and there are a lot of healthcare jobs around.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using TGR Forums mobile app

[cinnepa]

supposed to do 2 nights in keene late august...then over to boston for 2. end of summer vaca.... maybe split up...1 in keene. 1 lebanon. i like being close to vt without living there....and still an easy trip to good nh skiing too... as the retirement living options investigation tour starts.

[cinnepa]

I’m in Walpole, northwest of Keene by 15 miles. Right on the river. Exit 5 on 91. 40 minutes to Okemo, 40 minutes to Magic, 65 minutes to Killington. It’s a sweet-ass town to live in.

suprising they ranked keene as 60th best city to retire to in NH. thought it would of been much higher than that. lebanon making the top 10. leaning western NH for sure...close to great skiing in VT and NH.....also not that far to the beach.

[iceman]

I wouldn't pay too much attention to those rankings, Keene's nice but not very close to too much, as mentioned in that other thread. But the widest Main Street in America! Maybe it's too wide for old people to get across, I dunno. But yeah it's pretty south and not on the interstate. Not bad for Magic, Okemo, Sunapee, Killington etc.

Let me guess, I bet Nashua's high in the rankings. And probably Salem and Lebanon. Put up a link to the rankings if you have one.

[cinnepa]

so much for rankings...keene is 60th in one, top 10 in another.
https://www.niche.com/places-to-live...new-hampshire/

https://smartasset.com/retirement/be...-new-hampshire

[iceman]

Those rankings are always wack. For instance in the second link, they say Hanover "brings up the rear of this list with just 0.84 medical centers per 1,000 residents." Um, yeah, okay, but it's probably the best hospital in the state.

[cinnepa]

Cannon's right down the road and it's a real mountain. I probably have more days at Cannon (still) than anywhere else, and that place is drastically underrated, except when they're talking about cold and ice, because it sure has those in abundance. But it's a great mountain. Just don't take it lightly.

That area of NH is great overall, I'd much rather be there than North Conway myself because I hate crowds mainly. Conway is great for many reasons but it used to be much better (imo) before the outlet malls and all of that shit.

I asked earlier abut the tax advantages of NH v. VT because I'd rather be in the Mad River Valley (Warren/Waitsfield etc.) myself. But not by a hell of a lot. And for sure not if it made me poor.

On the taxes....for me, VT would tax my pension, NH would not. That alone makes the decision easy as far as preferred state.

[ötzi]

Have prices shot up around there?

[AdironRider]

Compared to the rest of the country’s mountain towns it is still downright cheap. That being said what cost 150k when this thread was started is 250k now.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Look carefully at property taxes by town. We bought our retirement home on Granite Lake (12 minutes to Keene) 18 months ago; the town line between Stoddard and Nelson bisects the lake - we are on the Stoddard side. We looked at 2 houses. The one we bought was listed at $399K (we didn't pay that much) the other was listed at $279K. Property taxes on the Stoddard side of the lake (where we bought) equate to $12.50/$1000. Property taxes on the Nelson side of the lake equate to $28.67/$1000.

Agree on the Dublin comment...old money and a nice lake that is ruined by Hwy 101 going right by. Jaffrey is nice but further away from skiing. Also the lakes around Jaffrey are trending toward Eutrophic (high probability of algae blooms). Keene area is hard to beat.

Definitely don't agree on the accessibility comment. We can get to Boston way faster than people that live in Littleton or Lebanon. You just have to know the back roads that get you to the divided highway part of Rte 2 in Mass. Decent hospitals in both Keene and Peterborough and Hanover is a little over an hour away. It's under 2 hours to Dana-Farber in Boston.

For skiing, Crotched (don't underrate it) is 25 minutes from my door; Pat's Peak and Sunapee are 42 minutes (different directions), and Magic is 72 minutes. We also have a place at Magic so that timing is just to get to our winter house. Magic has several trails that are steeper than anything other than the tramline at Cannon. It's a smaller mountain for sure but it punches above its weight and the tree skiing is world class. Have another friend (other than Buttah) that lives in Walpole and he skis 100 days a season at Killington. Says he makes it there in 70 minutes.

I don't MTB but the dirt roads around here are phenomenal for gravel riding. You will do a lot of climbing but the downs are sublime and no traffic to worry about. Spectacular views of Mount Monadnock everywhere and there are so many lakes to explore.

Vermont is a great place to be from...but there are more than 50,000 native-born Vermonters that live within 5 miles of the Connecticut River (on the east side). There's a reason for that. My family all abandoned VT and landed in NH (all over the state) 40 years ago. I was the last holdout but with a military pension and a federal pension (both taxed by VT) and the fact that VT treats 100% of your Social Security Security as income, they will bleed you dry. I paid way more in property taxes in Vermont (per $1000 of appraised value) than I do in NH. The only place we get stung in NH is car registration.

Adi-Rider's comment above is accurate though. A house on our lake was on the market recently....lasted 1 day and sold above asking which was already $100K more than it was worth.

[cinnepa]

Compared to the rest of the country’s mountain towns it is still downright cheap. That being said what cost 150k when this thread was started is 250k now.

Took note of that, thanks

[riser4]

I stay in VT because of the high taxes and liberal politics.

[Bushwacka]

Littleton has great MTB spot in PRKR mountain. best on climbable long Travel bike IMO, the DH are actually quite rough and fast.

Taxes are not bad in Vermont if you put your land into "USE"

[Greenstateofmind]

Littleton has great MTB spot in PRKR mountain. best on climbable long Travel bike IMO, the DH are actually quite rough and fast.

Taxes are not bad in Vermont if you put your land into "USE"

I think I’ll start a mole/chipmunk farm. Any takers?

[Lostintime]

Littleton has great MTB spot in PRKR mountain. best on climbable long Travel bike IMO, the DH are actually quite rough and fast.

Taxes are not bad in Vermont if you put your land into "USE"

I can't stay quiet on this statement. As R3 stated, this is the place for high taxes and liberal politics. Upon registering my vehicle in the state for a car I had paid sales tax on new, I had the honor of being taxed again at it's blue book which was higher than what I could have sold it for at the time. Registering my next car, even with a sales receipt, I was taxed at blue book. Maybe this has changed.

Placing your land in "current use " to avoid taxes, requires more than 25 acres and either engaged in farming or have an established logging plan. This generally benefits large land holders. Not necessarily cash rich.

There is a process for contesting property tax assessments, but in my experience the town ignored the law and set legal precedent, that is the most accurate value of a property is a recent sale. They still assessed me 20k above my purchase price in a flat market. They refused to consider home condition saying that falls under maintenance and does not affect home value. Really??? Old leaky windows don't affect the value???

They know most people won't retain a lawyer to fight for there rights over a few thousand dollars of unjust taxes. The schools here are decent and school taxes are very high.

It's a great place to live with lots of good people, but by no means is it inexpensive when you compare cost of living vs the state's median income of about 35K per person. Pensions are taxed as well.

Bushwacka, I hope it's just my sarcasm meter needs an adjustment and you are not really serious about taxes. We put up with it because we love where we live. If you have acquired wealth, it's not a bad place to relocate. Please don't move here if you want this place changed to how it is where you came from. Inevitable, sigh.

[schuss]

Also, current use means the following:
1. You can't kick people off your land as you've put it up for public use
2. You have to pay 10% of the value when you pull it out and want to do something with it.

[AdironRider]

Maybe its different in VT but in NH you can still post land in current use, but if you do open it up to "recreational use" you get an additional 20% off the tax assessment.

[Timberridge]

Folks, this thread was started 4 years ago. If Cinnepa hasn't made the move by now, he'll never go.

Since we've drifted off topic from NH to VT, I would like to add my .02 on VT living.

If you're a charismatic person like myself you can also start a religion and claim tax free status. But this is not for everyone and it may be easier to keep goats.

If you don't want billboards, you have to pay. It's as simple at that.

[jackstraw]

Those rankings are always wack.

Ha! Totally! They ranked Seabrook Beach 4th! And Hampton Beach 12th! Yeah, if you want to be near a meth house all winter and a shitshow of assholes all summer! Don't ever look at that website again. They're clueless.

[AdironRider]

Maybe the large family of inbreeds that constitutes the population of Seabrook banded together and stuffed the ballot box?

[jackstraw]

Maybe the large family of inbreeds that constitutes the population of Seabrook banded together and stuffed the ballot box?

Seabrook Beach is different than Seabrook. SB is nice and everyone that lived there went to Sacred Heart, not Seabrook Elementary. This issue is you are trapped in the summer. You cannot get anywhere North without sitting in the traffic of HB just to get some milk. And gawd knows you don't want to go South and then West ending up in Seabrook.

[cinnepa]

Folks, this thread was started 4 years ago. If Cinnepa hasn't made the move by now, he'll never go.

Since we've drifted off topic from NH to VT, I would like to add my .02 on VT living.

If you're a charismatic person like myself you can also start a religion and claim tax free status. But this is not for everyone and it may be easier to keep goats.

If you don't want billboards, you have to pay. It's as simple at that.

Ha, at the time there were early retirement rumors,,,ended of course. My real retirement is next August so all info is good info and appreciated.